React's not a silver bullet. And you're right to point out that problems are coming up because of React.

However, when you think back to when React first came out, JavaScript was in a different place than it is today. JavaScript used to mean jQuery and/or BackboneJS (for a lot of people). While these framework's were ok they got messy when you started to make larger SPA's or just complex applications in general.

React came along and made making the UI layer of your app much simpler. No need to worry about event handlers and tying your business logic to the DOM (data attributes anyone?). You could whip up some components, use React's state to manage UI logic and you'd be all set. It was a breath of fresh air, and to many, it still is.

All that to say is that React was one of the first frameworks to think of a JavaScript UI differently and decoupled things from jQuery soup. Yeah, it's starting to show it's age a bit nowadays, and it may not be the fastest for small to medium size JS apps. But it's got a ton of documentation and examples on the web and it gets things done.